Aurender music servers: higher priced ones sonically better?

I was an IT guy with a real passion for high end audio. Most of this experimentation I did over a period of ten years. If I had a good memory and an interest I could reconstruct all the fiddling I did. I have not either. But dealing with jitter (hence using a USB DAC that re-timed the bit stream), shutting down all other processes, heavy power conditioning… etc we’re all stuff I did. Still in comparison to a good streamer it was totally inadequate. I am sure given the amount of money i spent trying to tweak my pc based systems I could have bought a good streamer and had better sound much sooner. Today, even more so, since streamers are so much more available. Sorry, that is about as deep into the weeds as I want to get, sounds like you would like a more technical answer… once I have an epiphany like I did with streamers I leave the past go and move on. 

I believe if you really spent an incredible amount of time at this futzing around you could get close to a low end streamer… yes. That is why I spent so much time at it… to save money. The problem is PCs are simply not created with noise reduction and power conditioning in mind. A good streamer is built from the ground up with that in mind.

If you enjoy futzing around with NUCs and different components… that is great. What ever you enjoy. I used to enjoy evaluating the sound of interconnects and cables. But for a normal folks looking for as good of sound reproduction as they can get within there budget then a streamer is likely to be the path to take. Unfortunately, really high end sound is expensive. Cheaper today than it was twenty years ago. Just trying to be helpful to most folks here. When you have some time, go borrow a good quality streamer from a dealer.

I worked with streaming on two fronts for about fifteen years. My main system and what eventually became my library headphone system. See my systems by clicking on my user ID.

During this time I used many different software and storage combos on my headphone system. I settled on Ayre QB-9 DAC… lots of power conditioning and a $500 USB cable that finally got some real magic out of the system. I had and have a number of high end headphones. I use high quality Woo headphone amps.

On my main system I was running a Sim Moon 650D DAC with a Sim Moon 820 power supply. I used an MacBook that I carefully unplugged when using as a server. I have since upgraded this whole system in a big way. The Aurender W20se streamer seemed expensive until i turned it on and listened. Finally some competition with vinyl.


I did all sorts of software and format changes. I doubt there was much I didn’t try. Bought a bunch of high res files. Tried from the MacBook, USB storage, network storage. All sorts of interconnects. The more I think back the more stuff I realized I tried.

Anyway, I didn’t get real audiophile quality sound until I finally broke down and got dedicated streamers. I was resistant… “it’s only a PC in a different box”, why should I spend so much money? The difference was profound.

I streamed off a MacBook and / or a PC for years. The sound was, in retrospect terrible. Until I got a dedicated streamer (Auralic Aries first then Aurender) the sound was without a quiet background (very high noise floor), dynamic, or natural sound. I would constantly flipping from one track to another (in retrospect trying to find something that sounded good). When I swapped to a great streamer, my surfing ended, each tune was captivating… even stuff I normally would not like.

Absolututely. I started with a N100, auditioned a N10 and finally bought a W20SE. Each cost improvement brings a significant improvement in performance. My Aurender streamer / DAC combo is equally as satisfying as my analog end (not a slouch: Linn LP 12 / Audio Reseach REF 3). It performs exactly the same on red book CDs and better much of the time as Qobuz has lots of high resolution content. I also owned a Auralic Aries G2, which the Aurender beat handily. Aurender seems to be very good at power supplies as well as other aspects of streamer design. 

Since a CD player is a physical transport, streamer, and DAC… when you separate streaming…. It is the SQ of the Streamer / DAC you are comparing it to.